Ginobili makes it easy for the Spurs

Manu Ginobili drives up his price with seemingly every game, and Sunday was no different. He scored 32 points, put up with Ron Artest and took over the point for George Hill in the second half.

But he’s not only making himself money, he’s also making it easy on his franchise.

Now the Spurs know.

They have to sign him.

It would have been far worse for the Spurs if Ginobili had been spotty this season, and the team had responded accordingly.

Then Peter Holt would have been stuck with two bad options. Either keep him knowing the Spurs would lose money while continuing to be mediocre. Or lose him and watch the franchise’s most popular player leave as the franchise sank to rebuilding mode.

Now there’s no gray area. No matter his age, no matter his history, this kind of player deserves market value. Gregg Popovich said as much in interviews Sunday, when he said Ginobili does what Kobe Bryant and LeBron James do for their teams, albeit in a different package.

Ginobili won’t get Kobe/LeBron money. But Popovich won’t mind paying Ginobili something like, oh, $26 million over two years. To not do so would, in effect, end the Tim Duncan era while running off a legion of fans.

So the Spurs’ regret now isn’t that they will have to pay to keep Ginobili. It’s wondering what they could have done the past two post-seasons with Ginobili playing like this.

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As for the MVP chants that Ginobili doesn’t like hearing in the AT&T Center: He won’t finish in the top five in voting, because it’s an award for the full season. But if the Spurs beating the Celtics, Magic, Cavaliers and Lakers with him isn’t evidence enough of his worth, then losing to the Nets without him confirms that.

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Only Artest is crazy enough to think that bullying Ginobili is smart. Artest tried as much in the 2006 playoffs, when Artest played for Sacramento, and all he got out of it was a one-game suspension.